


There Was a Barber and His Wife

by minnabird



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Sweeney Todd - Sondheim/Wheeler
Genre: Gen, Implied or Off-stage Rape/Non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-05
Updated: 2013-07-05
Packaged: 2017-12-17 18:41:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/870765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minnabird/pseuds/minnabird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucy was keeping a secret from her husband.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There Was a Barber and His Wife

For love, Lucy put away her wand. She had a new life, and a husband who looked at her as if she was his moon and sun. The locked box under her bed gathered dust as she and Benjamin set up house and whiled away the days in happiness. Soon a baby was born, a daughter just like her mother in every particular. Lucy never told Benjamin of the heritage she and Johanna shared. He would learn, she thought. Soon enough, he would learn, and until then they might be happy.

How wrong she was. Their felicity lasted but a year longer. She was foolish and naive, thinking the Judge might reconsider. But oh, how she’d hoped.

Despair clawed at her in the aftermath. She looked at London with new eyes, and every man walking the streets as she fled was another shadow gathering in her mind. She was cowering in an alley, the farthest her legs would carry her, bleeding and raw, when the witch found her.

“Here, love,” the witch said, a twinkle in her eyes. Was it kindness? Lucy wondered. Or glee? “Wouldn’t you like to forget?” she continued, drawing a vial out of one of her pockets. “I would, poor pet. I’m no hand at Memory Charms, but I’ve got a potion. Me mother handed down the recipe.”

Lucy stared at the vial, then at the witch. “What’s your name?” she asked, her voice hoarse.

“Nellie, dear. I’ve got to be getting back, but I’ll leave this here for you, how’s that?”

When the witch had gone, Lucy reached for the vial with trembling hands. She stared at the blood-red liquid inside. Could she really forget?

 


End file.
